Jordan Clare Johansen (University of Chicago)
In a pseudo-documentary epistolary exchange in the Alexander Romance (3.18) (cf. Arthur-Montagne), Queen Kandake of Meroë responds to Alexander with a statement about the nature of her body and soul: μὴ καταγνῷς δὲ τοῦ χρώματος ἡμῶν· ἐσμὲν γὰρ λευκότεροι καὶ λαμπρότεροι ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν παρὰ σοῦ λευκοτάτων (“Do not despise our color, for we are whiter and more brilliant in our souls than the whitest among your people”). This passage has been noted by scholars for its use of symbolic color language (cf. Byron; Snowden). For instance, according to Snowden, “in classical thought the blackness of the Ethiopian was only skin deep,” citing this passage in the Alexander Romance as well as later Roman and early Christian sources, many of which emphasize “inner whiteness” (Snowden).
Instead of looking to later Roman and early Christian comparanda, this paper argues that the passage is an intertextual allusion to Hellenistic writings about the Nubian natural landscape. In particular, Kandake’s language in the Alexander Romance shows a noted similarity to Diodorus Siculus’ description (3.12) of a Ptolemaic gold mine in Nubia, in which he distinguishes the outer blackness of the Nubian soil with the inner whiteness of the quartz, from which the gold is mined: τῆς γὰρ γῆς μελαίνης οὔσης τῇ φύσει καὶ διαφυὰς καὶ φλέβας ἐχούσης μαρμάρου τῇ λευκότητι διαφερούσας καὶ πάσας τὰς περιλαμπομένας φύσεις ὑπερβαλλούσας τῇ λαμπρότητι ("For the earth is naturally black, with strata and veins of quartz that are remarkable for their whiteness, surpassing all shining substances in their brilliance").
Adapted from Agatharchides 2nd-1st c. BCE text On the Eurythraean Sea, Diodorus takes creative liberties with his source text “in order to better integrate them into his work” (Burstein), aligning the passage with his earlier description of the sun’s role in creating both color diversity and high-quality mineral deposits in nature (2.53.4). For instance, Diodorus gives the example of the precious stones of Arabia whose “whiteness is most brilliant” (ὧν λαμπροτάτη μὲν ἡ λευκότης), because of “the influence of the sun,” which has “made it brilliant by its light” (2.53.9). The influence of the sun on the color variations of the stone links the passage to Greek climate-based race-thinking (cf. Strabo 15.1.24; Airs, Waters, Places from the Hippocratic corpus; Snowden; McCoskey pp. 46-49).
Through this intertextual allusion, Queen Kandake comes to embody her country and its natural resources. This has important stakes for the legibility of the entire Kandake episode (3.18-3.24) in the Alexander Romance. Viewing this passage through an intersectional ecofeminist lens (Bilge; Hill Collins; cf. Merchant; Meiu; Bile; Khalil; Bassham), Queen Kandake’s embodiment of her Nubian realm has the dual function of feminizing Nubia and objectifying the queen (Nussbaum), opening both to Alexander’s “imperial gaze” (Kaplan; cf. Sartre; Lacan; Foucault 1994; Foucault 1995), which the queen ultimately subverts (De Weever; Butler). This ecofeminist reading reveals complex gender politics in the Alexander Romance, showing the text to be a repository for Hellenistic conceptions of the intersections of race, gender, the environment, and imperialism.